worklife

Coming June 1, 2027

How rethinking the role of work in our lives can help us flourish

An optimistic and inspiring guide to finding meaning, purpose, and contentment in today’s rapidly changing world of work.

About the book

Princeton University Press

Few things inspire as much hope, fear, joy, or misery as work. A difficult or degrading job can profoundly harm our wellbeing, while a meaningful one can bring with it many of life’s greatest goods. In Worklife, Paul Blaschko shows that how we think about work, what we expect from it, and the place we give it in our lives can determine whether it becomes a source of meaning and purpose that helps us flourish and build a good life.

Managing our work and integrating it into a well-lived life can seem impossible today, but Worklife reveals how it can be done. Drawing on philosophers and thinkers including Aristotle, Karl Marx, Virginia Woolf, and Hannah Arendt, Blaschko addresses many of today’s work-related disorders and challenges with verve and humor.

He tackles

  • “Achievementism”
  • Gamification
  • Status anxiety
  • Success addiction
  • Burnout
  • Leisure
  • Work and family
  • Retirement

Through vivid examples, from

  • His own life
  • The monks of Grande Chartreuse
  • Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”
  • Wendell Berry’s “Manifesto”

Revealing how reflection and some ancient wisdom can help us flourish at and through work, Worklife is an optimistic and inspiring guide to finding meaning, purpose, and contentment in today’s rapidly changing world of work.

For courses and groups

Teaching a course

Instructors can request an exam copy from Princeton University Press. Request an exam copy

Book clubs, common reading, and organizations

For bulk discounts and quantity orders, email Princeton University Press at commonreads@press.princeton.edu

Inviting Paul to speak

For talks and events, contact PUP Speaks at pupspeaks@press.princeton.edu

About the author

Paul Blaschko

Paul Blaschko is a philosopher and educator who writes, teaches, and speaks about work, meaning, and the good life. He earned his PhD in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and taught there until 2026.

At Notre Dame he designed and taught “The Working Life,” a course on the philosophy of work, and co-designed and taught “God and the Good Life,” the university’s most popular introductory philosophy course. He founded the Sheedy Family Program in Economy, Enterprise, and Society and directed it until 2026. He regularly helps professors at other schools design similar courses.

He is co-author of The Good Life Method: Reasoning Through the Big Questions of Happiness, Faith, and Meaning (Penguin Press, 2022).

Get launch news

Sign up for The Space of Reason, Paul’s Substack on thinking philosophically about work and everyday life. Subscribers hear first about launch week, events, and new writing.

Subscribe on Substack Free · paulblaschko.substack.com